The fight between ICM Registry and the Free Speech Coalition over the proposed .xxx top-level domain is not over yet.

The porn trade group has a plan to block ICM’s passage through the ICANN process, and has already stepped up efforts to rally the adult entertainment industry to its cause.

Last weekend at the AVN Show in Florida, FSC chair Diane Duke reportedly said:

ICM is saying this is a done deal… but it is not a done deal. We [the FSC] have a strategy to block the application. I have spoken with people from ICANN, and they agreed that this is not a done deal.

Asked whether lawsuits would be required, Duke reportedly answered: “There are other avenues to block this.”

These comments and others suggest that the FSC intends to use ICANN processes to, at the very least, delay .xxx’s delegation.

A public comment period will be launched soon on the proposed ICM-ICANN registry contract. This will likely be oversubscribed by FSC supporters.

If the contract ends up being bounced to ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee for consideration, there’s another opportunity for FSC lobbying.

Then, crucially, if ICANN votes to approve .xxx, the FSC could attempt to temporarily block the actual delegation to the DNS root by filing a Reconsideration Request.

Under my reading of the Reconsideration procedure, the actual delegation of the TLD could be delayed by anything between 30 and 120 days. Possibly longer.

The FSC would need to show at the very least that it would be harmed by .xxx’s introduction. If successful, the best case scenario for the FSC would see the resolution approving .xxx bounced back to the ICANN board for a second vote.

Beyond that, there’s always an Independent Review Panel. For that, the FSC would need to show that the .xxx approval breached ICANN’s bylaws or articles of incorporation, which seems to me to be a more challenging proposition. Also very expensive.

Another interesting quote from the AVN article – reportedly Allan Gelbard, lawyer to John “Buttman” Stagliano, said that the adult industry may be unduly worrying because:

anti-trust and trademark legal challenges would be brought immediately following the final approval by the ICANN board

Comments (10)

There is another, more likely, over-arching, strategy that fits the ICANN Board’s profile. [Note: They are largely 1990s PBS/BBC geekoids hand-placed by Vint Cerf.]

A more likely scenario is for the ICANN Board to look at the “State of the .NET” and declare TIME.OUT!!!
No more changes!!! Until they get DNSSEC working
and IDNs and .CO and HTML5 and whatever else they
dream up.

They can play the “Stability Card”. It fits their profile. Nothing would need to be said about .XXX
or other “work in progress”. The spin would be that
everything is on hold. Shucks, .XXX is the only TLD
experiment that did not make it before the freeze.

I really do hope they stop them in their tracks. It just reeks or regulation enforcement by the government
and of the opportunity for a shakedown on the part of the registrar. Just like with .CO, companies that owned the .Com had to defensively register their trademark or name, so no idiot would try to benefit by it. Same thing is going to happen if the .XXX extension is approved. I hope the adult biz companies sue the fu*k out of both the registrar and anybody that tries to infringe on their existing sites or trademarks if the extension is approved.

Porn Union?
I didn’t know we had a porn union.
Who is my Union Rep?
I want Dental Insurance.

Oh, and in response to Kevin’s critique of the movie (I am the director of it)
“To be honest, the funniest thing about it for me was the decision to cast a handsome, shiny-toothed American anchorman type as British ICM president Stuart Lawley.”

That was intentional. We looked for the ultimate salesman-type and the Brits do cast in these roles nearly as well…..;-)

[…] Another 30-day public comment is now underway, which will likely see more concerted efforts by the Free Speech Coalition and its accidental allies on the religious right to have .xxx killed off. […]